PDF/A-3 invoices: what Mutabiq checks in a PDF
A Phase 2 e-invoice can reach a buyer as a PDF/A-3 file: pages a person can read, with the invoice’s XML embedded in the file. Mutabiq checks that embedded XML, and nothing else in the PDF.
What a PDF/A-3 invoice is
The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) lets a Phase 2 tax invoice be generated and shared with the buyer as XML or as a PDF/A-3 with the XML embedded, and the Fatoora platform only ever receives the XML (E-Invoicing Detailed Guideline, section 4.1.2). In a PDF/A-3 invoice the PDF is the human-readable form, and the XML invoice itself is attached inside it as an embedded file (Security Features Implementation Standards v1.2, section 2.2).
What Mutabiq checks
- It takes the one XML invoice embedded in the PDF and checks it with the same rules, in the same way, as an XML file uploaded on its own.
- It does not check the PDF’s visible pages, its own digital signature (PAdES), or whether the PDF itself conforms to PDF/A-3, and the report says that it checked the embedded XML.
- It is on every plan, Free included. A PDF of up to 10 MB is accepted, and it is checked in memory and never stored.
When a PDF is refused
A PDF with no XML inside, with more than one XML file, protected by a password, or built in a form the reader cannot follow is refused with the reason, before anything is counted: no verdict is given and no validation is spent.
A PDF with no XML inside is refused rather than reported as Not passed, because there is nothing in it for Mutabiq to check, and a missing attachment is not in itself a finding about the invoice.
A simplified tax invoice may lawfully arrive with no XML at all: once it is stamped and carries its QR code, it is presented to the buyer as a printed copy or, by agreement between the parties, in any other human-readable form, such as a plain PDF, and only a standard tax invoice must reach the buyer as XML or as a PDF/A-3 with the XML embedded (E-Invoicing Detailed Guideline, sections 4.2.2 and 4.1.2). So a supplier's simplified invoice that comes as a PDF without XML is not a mistake on their part; it only means there is nothing in it for Mutabiq to check.
If a supplier sent you the invoice
Ask the supplier for the invoice’s .xml file, or for a PDF/A-3 that carries it. When the XML is checked and something needs fixing, the report gives you a plain-text summary to send them.